Rejuvenate Your Lawn after the Wet Season
Fertilise Your Lawn
When to Fertilise
The Dry Tropical climate can be harsh on our lawns and gardens. For our lawns, the wet months bring with them a high growing season which can leave your turf depleted and the soil low on nutrients.
This wet season has been a particularly draining one, including the record monsoon and flooding event, as well as the current cyclone threats which are very late in the season.
When these systems settle down it will be a good time to look at rebuilding the nutrients in your soil to support your plants and lawns through the dry.
William’s Tips
As a former turf farmer Plant-EM Director William Crabb has some industry knowledge that could help you achieve your dream green lawn.
- You must fertilise! Light to moderate fertilising will do your lawn wanders.
- Why Fertilise? The top 3 elements required to grow grass are Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Calcium (N.P.Ca.) Then Potassium and Magnesium (K. & Mg.)
- What to use? With all the different brands it can become very confusing. So work on an N.P.K. ratio and if you can include some CA. and MG. that would be great. When I was growing turf I chose to use: Incitec Nitrophoska Special and Urea, then water well. The best way to add Calcium and Magnesium is with Dolomite. This is best done once a year and during the wetter months. Word of warning Dolomite will alter your PH so just be mindful of your current soil PH when doing this.
- When to use it? In Townsville & North Queensland’s dry tropical climate, March is a good month to fertilise. Apply in the late afternoon or evening then apply enough water to dissolve the Urea. The Nitrophoska is a slower release and will take several waterings to dissolve.
- How much to use? Apply Nitrophoska at 2.5 kg per 100 sqm of lawn and Urea at 1.25 kg per sqm of lawn. On an average yard of 200 sqm a 25kg bag will be enough to fertilise twice. If your lawn is in reasonable condition you may be able to cut this rate in half. Remember I was making my lawn grow and not just wanting it to look good.
- What else to use? Other additives like dynamic lifter, Humates are good to add at the same time as fertilising, as they help feed the microorganisms in the soil and help get better life out of fertiliser.
Mow Before Fertilising
Prep Work
Another good tip is to mow your lawn before fertilising this will allow the fertiliser get to the soil quicker. Mow the next mow with out a catcher so as not to pick up on undissolved fertiliser.
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If you need help with your lawn or garden please get in touch with our experienced team.
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